


On the Line

by user_name



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Dark, M/M, Magic, Magical Realism, Mystery, Phone Sex, Sexual Tension, Stalking, Supernatural Elements
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-19
Updated: 2019-05-20
Packaged: 2020-03-08 01:40:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,774
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18885514
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/user_name/pseuds/user_name
Summary: Kyungsoo knows someone's watching him.





	1. Chapter 1

Kyungsoo thinks it’s going to be just another average day behind the counter until he feels the eyes on the back of his neck. It starts as a prickling against the gooseflesh of his skin, like some naughty customer has brushed one of the one dollar mini terrarium cacti against his neck, stuck its poison into his veins.

“That’ll be four dollars,” he says to the balding man with a Snickers Klondike bar in hand, even as the prickling grows, and swells, and stays. Kyungsoo keeps his face impassive. It should be fading any second now.

“Thanks,” the man says gruffly, but doesn’t leave. Under fluorescent lighting, the shiny spot on his bald forehead looks familiar, and yet Kyungsoo knows he has never seen this man before. It’s a face he’s seen on the cheating potbellied husbands from the inn next door a million times. Confident. Greasy. Varying degrees of nonexistent guilt.

The man crawls his gaze over Kyungsoo from head to toe. “Say, you look kinda familiar,” he finally says, reaching out to grab Kyungsoo’s wrist. “Aren’t you one of the poster boys—”

“Nope.” Kyungsoo draws his hand back in a flash. Within seconds, the man has fallen to the floor groaning, one meaty hand clutched to his chest.

“You bitch! What did you do to me?” he howls, rocking as if he’s in pain.

“Nothing. I didn’t touch you,” Kyungsoo says.

And it’s true. Whether he’s working at the gas station, or at the inn where he makes mad money on phone sex, or even at the afterparty Baekhyun dragged him to where some frat guy tried to wrap his hands around Kyungsoo’s thighs, he never touches them. And they never touch him.

The sound of the buzzer is Kyungsoo's only indication that the man has left. Kyungsoo doesn't look up from the counter. He just stands there and examines his resting hands as if they belong to someone else. 

***

As always, the walk home is dark. The prickling is still there at the back of his neck, and he swears he hears twins to his footsteps, echoing one heartbeat after his own, but that's to be expected by now. The stairs to his apartment are rickety and narrow. Kyungsoo, being blind as a bat, forgets the crooked step and trips. His heart pounds out of his chest as he lies there, sprawled across the stairs in the dark, and he half expects the footsteps to stop but they don't. They quicken, as if someone's running up the stairs, closing in the distance. Kyungsoo whimpers. The sound abruptly stops.

Dead, terrifying silence. Kyungsoo waits, and then gets up on jello legs and wobbles the rest of his way up the stairs. No echoing footsteps this time, even as he turns the knob to his apartment. It's too quiet.

In bed, he clutches the stuffed penguin he'd bought for himself on a whim two days ago. He’d thought he'd need it.

The sound of footsteps echo in his mind, convincing him to keep his reading lamp on even as his eyes begin to buzz with heaviness. He blinks, looks at the beaded eyes of his penguin plushie and wonders if maybe it's watching him too, maybe it's sentient.

Kyungsoo sighs himself to sleep. Maybe he's losing it.


	2. Chapter 2

It’s not until Monday that the feeling returns. By then, he’s sick of it. By then he’s sick of a lot of things.

Kyungsoo sits through Art History with one hand kneading at a wad of dirty putty rubber, the other fiddling with the pencil he’s had since fourth grade. His mind starts to drift when he remembers that as per usual, of all the 400 people in the lecture hall, no one is paying the least bit of attention to him. He could be masturbating under his desk for all they know.

When Kyungsoo’s bored he likes to occupy himself with the rubbery eraser of his pencil, enjoy its perfect balance between hard and slightly springy between his teeth. It’s short and he doesn’t use it to write anymore, and by the time the bell rings he looks down to see he’s chewed through another spot in the paint.

Class ends with everyone crowding up around the podium, eager to turn in some paper. Kyungsoo frowns, confused, and turns to the guy beside him. “What’s everyone turning in?”

”Oh, it’s the Major Project 1 essay on the historical site you chose. It’s due today.”

”What?”

The guy gives him a funny look, and pats him on the shoulder as if to reassure him. Prickles crawl down the back of his neck at the gesture, but Kyungsoo ignores it. “The assignment’s posted online, but I’m sure she’d be okay with you turning it in a little late.”

Kyungsoo just nods, dumbfounded.

***

He’s alone in room 343 later that day, spinning around on the swivel chair with suspicious stains, moaning into the receiver with the landline twirled around his fingers—they like to do it the old fashioned way here—when Steve’s end goes silent.

Kyungsoo sucks in a breath. “Ooh, yes daddy, can you imagine me tied up for you?” There’s a grunt, so Kyungsoo knows Steve just came. 

 _Finally._ Steve’s a loyal customer, but he’s always had trouble getting it up, and Kyungsoo has never felt so ready to leave. 

“Fuck. That was great.” Kyungsoo hears some shuffling on the other end and pictures the man in a small dirty room like 343, wiping off cum splattered walls with a sock. He sighs just as Steve crackles back into hearing range. “Hey, is everything okay? You didn’t sound so into it today.”

Kyungsoo purses his lips. Leave it to this white boy, man, whatever—Kyungsoo doesn’t know and doesn’t care—to be overly observant. Or maybe Kyungsoo’s just really off his game today. Whatever the case, it doesn’t really matter. Work has been frying his brain and he still needs to get home to finish that essay and pray that Professor Kirkland accepts late work. “Yes daddy,” Kyungsoo croons into the receiver. “You were _amazing_.”

Suddenly, Kyungsoo feels a finger, the press hot and rough, drag its way down from the nape of his neck to the naked curve of his spine. Kyungsoo arches and shrieks. Steve shrieks too. Kyungsoo has a shirt on, but the finger touched his skin. He pulls his knees to his chest, shuddering. He can’t trust anything.

On the other end, Steve hesitates. “Is-is everything okay?” His voice echoes the fear clouding Kyungsoo’s mind.

”Oh yes, just a spider,” Kyungsoo says, hating himself. There is no spider. The room is empty. “Sorry, Steve, but I’ve got another call. I’ll talk to you next time, mwah.” Kyungsoo doesn’t wait for a response. He drops the phone on the table and books it.

***

Kyungsoo’s backpack is filled with wads of crumpled notes, lumpy stuffed animals that he never leaves his dorm without, and 3 family sized packs of mint chocolate gum. It all goes flying into the air when he walks through H Mart at 1am, free from his shift at the inn but also too tired to notice his bag is unzipped, or that there’s a CAUTION, WET! sign directly in his path. 

Kyungsoo’s mortified to find himself on his back, lumpy penguins strewn everywhere across the soapy floor. He can’t stop apologizing to the ahjumma who helps him up and it’s not until he’s back at the apartment that he notices he’s missing one of his penguins.

***

The prickling sensation at the back of his neck seems to have only increased in intensity since his fall. It’s not painful or anything but it’s enough to put him on edge, enough to make him look behind his shoulder at every corner, jump five feet in the air when Baekhyun barges into their apartment with bubble tea, and yelp and apologize profusely after Xiumin taps him on the shoulder in the library. 

After a week of this torture, Kyungsoo finds himself with his head in the fridge on a Friday night, mumbling to himself as he wipes every surface spotless. Cooking and cleaning are some of the only things that can calm him now.

“I know you’re stressed about school and work and all, but you need to loosen up, Soo,” Baekhyun mumbles loudly behind a mouthful of Cheetos. “Take a break. Treat yourself.”

Kyungsoo turns and wrinkles his nose. “I _am_ loose. And get your feet off the table. We eat off of that thing.”

”Mhmm, _very_ loose,” Baekhyun says, wiggling his eyebrows. He narrowly dodges the frozen cabbage that Kyungsoo lobs at his head. To Kyungsoo’s dismay, it does nothing to deter his blabbering. “Hey, hey, you said it yourself! And speaking of which, it’s Friday. That means loosely-goosey time. You need to get out more. _I_ need to get laid. So you, me, Moonlight, tomorrow.” He claps his Cheeto dust hands, sending crumbs everywhere, and makes two peace signs in the air. “Perfect.”

”I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Baekhyun gasps in mock surprise. “ _The_ Moonlight club? With all the phone sex you do I thought you’d at least know about the _best_ nightclub in all of Seoul!”

”All I do is pretend to moan for some middle-aged Steves. It’s not that intense. Plus a crowded nightclub full of drunk students doesn’t exactly sound like a treat.”

Baekhyun rolls his eyes. “Oh my god, gramps. Sounds like you need to get laid too. It’s decided, you’re coming.”

Kyungsoo tenses; he knows what’s coming. Baekhyun cracks a grin. He breaks. “Coming. Figuratively _and_ literally,” he laughs with that annoying boxy smile. Kyungsoo throws a potato, and misses. Baekhyun laughs harder.

”Lame. You’re not funny,” Kyungsoo grumbles. 

Baekhyun shoots him finger guns. “I know, I’m hilarious. Glad we can agree.”

Kyungsoo sighs and turns back to the fridge to hide his smile. Maybe it’ll be something to look forward to. The prickly feeling of unease seems to vanish whenever Baekhyun talks to him, to the point where Kyungsoo can almost convince himself that it’s all just his exhausted mind playing tricks on him.

A nightclub, with potentially hot guys. Kyungsoo bites back another smile. For the first time in a long while, he feels excited.


	3. Chapter 3

****draft chapter****

The Moonlight is actually _insane_. It’s Saturday night. Baekhyun, Kyungsoo, and Xiumin are in a thick line of fancily dressed partygoers that stretches all the way down to the next block. 

They were in the back of the line when Baekhyun a tall, burly Kyungsoo cranes his head around

Kyungsoo spots xiumin in the corner, slut dropping down to his knees. _Impressive_.


End file.
